The plane is a woodworking tool which is frequently used by carpenters, craftsmen, and home workshop enthusiasts for performing various types of planing operations on the faces of boards and the relatively narrow edges of board for accomplishing such functions as jointing, truing, smoothing or finishing. In design it is a relatively simple tool, and with very little exception their designs have remained unchanged for about half a century. Over the years the common plane has been refined to a relatively high degree of operating efficiency, and virtually every plane manufactured and marketed today incorporates features and advantages which were available a long time ago.
The traditional and familiar woodworking plane comprises generally an elongate body having a flat surfaced sole plate which extends from one end of the body to the other. The sole plate defines a broad flat generally iron surface on which the plane slides over the edge or surface of the board being planed. An upstanding handle is connected to the rear end of the body for pushing the plane across the board, and a knob-like handle is mounted at the front end of the body for controlling the movement of the plane. A wide slot is located in the sole plate spaced from the forward end thereof by approximately 1/4 the length of the whole sole plate, and the slot extends laterally across most of the width of the sole plate. A cutting blade is adjustably mounted on the inside of the body member so that the plane of the blade forms an acute angle with the plane of the sole plate facing rearwardly and also so that the cutting edge of the blade projects through the slot. The mounting structure on the body for the blade includes means for moving the blade in a linear path so that the cutting blade can be adjustably extended beyond the working surface of the sole plate in order to vary the depth of cut to be made by the plane. Also, means are provided for moving the blade in an arcuate path about a pivot point in order to align the cutting edge of the blade with the bottom or working surface of the sole plate so that the blade will cut to a uniform depth across the width of the plane.
Notwithstanding the relative simplicity of design, conventional planes manufactured according to the design briefly described above are quite massive and heavy in construction and therefore are cumbersome to use and relatively expensive to manufacture. For example, since the slot for the blade extends across virtually the entire width of the sole plate, heavy side portions of the body must be maintained in order to provide sufficient strength and rigidity to the body to prevent it from bending under the stress of the high forces imposed upon them, during use. Also, the body itself is generally made of cast iron which is quite heavy and requires considerable machining to form the rather complex surfaces and shapes which are necessary to accommodate the mounting structure of the blade in order to provide for the multiple forms of movement of the blade. The sole plate is susceptible to rusting and requires frequent polishing, buffing or even re-machining in drastic cases to maintain a smooth sliding surface which offers a minimum of frictional resistance to the sliding movement of the plane. The adjusting mechanism is rather complicated and expensive to manufacture, since it requires a threaded knob and lever arrangement to accommodate the linear movement of the blade and a cam and lever arrangement to accommodate the arcuate movement of the blade. Finally, the blade itself is a relatively long piece of heat treated tool steel that requires a backing plate component as part of the clamping mechanism which secures the blade to the body very securely and yet in such manner that it can be moved in both directions as aforesaid, when in use.
Although the conventional plane may seem at first glance to be a relatively simple tool in terms of mechanical complexity and one which would be relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture, use and maintain, it should be apparent from the foregoing that quite the contrary is true. Thus there is a great need for a plane which will avoid these disadvantages.